SES Chapter 85 Part 1

Chapter 85

What a disaster out of nowhere. For a brief moment, Mu Dai even thought this woman was pitiful.

But this cursed slip of bamboo… it seemed different from the previous two.

She looked at Luo Ren. “This woman, even after being possessed by the slip, doesn’t seem to have gone on a killing spree.”

The mountains might be remote, but people still passed through from time to time. Zhama had said hunters often came and went. The tale of one old man being killed by the savage had already been exaggerated into legend. If more people started dying, the whole area within miles would be on high alert.

Luo Ren nodded. “Her vengeance is very clear. Even her scapegoat victim was chosen to resemble Old Yan.”

Yan Hongsha bit her lip. “Could it be that one time was just the savage acting on its own?”

It was possible. Maybe one day, the woman would tell the female savage about what had happened years ago. The savage, enraged, ran into an unlucky victim while wandering the forest and tore him apart. After that massacre, the surrounding villages grew terrified of the savage and eventually abandoned the area.

Mu Dai thought it over. “The way she killed also leaned toward personal revenge. She still hung them down the well, but the main thing was…”

She glanced at Yan Hongsha and lowered her voice. “The main thing was that she slit their throats and bled them dry.”

Luo Ren said, “When someone’s personal consciousness fuses with the slip, it’s a terrifying thing.”

“With the fishing line doll case, Liu Shuhai and my uncle were completely under the slip’s control. They resisted a little, but very weakly. The Five Pearl Village case is harder to judge—an old clam, who could know what it was really thinking? But this time, it’s like that woman and the savage were working together, and the woman and the slip… also worked together, in a way.”

Yes. The slip kept the woman alive, and she, in turn, carried out the things the slip ‘wanted’—like staging the hanging scenes.

A chill ran down Mu Dai’s back. “We guessed before that the slip couldn’t act on its own, that it needed to possess a living being to walk and do things. No matter how strange it is, it can’t bring the dead back to life. So when it possessed that woman, even though she was half-dead, part of her consciousness still lingered. But because she died so brutally, that remnant must have been soaked in rage. And because of that… she and the slip cooperated?”

Luo Ren didn’t deny it. “Think about it. All the people who committed murders after being possessed by the slip were, in truth, ordinary, rule-abiding folks. Even someone like Zhang Guanghua—his character had flaws, but others said there’s no way he’d ever kill someone.”

Yan Hongsha suddenly blurted out, “The slip is changing.”

It was. At least in how it chose its hosts—it had been stumbling, experimenting.

The first one—it grabbed whoever it could, crude and violent, no attempt to hide.

The second one—it tried another route, abandoning humans for a clam, using water to counter water, and the method was more concealed: the giant mural under the sea. If not for a coincidence, no one would’ve discovered it.

The third one…

The third one was laying traps, manipulating things from behind the scenes, like it was playing mind games.

A shiver ran through Mu Dai. She edged closer to Luo Ren. “Do you think… if there’s a fourth, or fifth, that we’ll see cases where an evil person and the slip click instantly? Join forces?”

Luo Ren smiled. “Of course. Birds of a feather. They’ll find each other.”

He went on, “I’m actually not afraid of the savage. It’s just an animal with a bit more brute strength, taller than people, able to walk upright. As for that woman, truthfully, she doesn’t scare me either. She only looked terrifying. Because she lived down a well, she moved in sudden, ghostly bursts. But if you punched her, she’d still hurt.”

Yan Hongsha asked, “Then what are you afraid of?”

Luo Ren didn’t answer. He lowered his head, staring at a word he had just written.

The word was “human.”

After a pause, he looked up. “Let’s bury Grandpa Hongsha first.”

The shovel had been left in the stone house. They had no tool at hand, and if they went back to fetch one, leaving Old Yan’s corpse here alone, who knew what might happen? As Luo Ren hesitated, Yan Hongsha whispered, “Just bury my grandpa in the Treasure Well.”

He had killed because of that well. Now he had died because of it. If not for clinging to one last big score before retiring, he wouldn’t have met this end.

Since they didn’t share a bed in life, let them share the grave in death.

The thought was bitterly ironic.

Luo Ren let out a long sigh, picked up the saber from the ground, crouched, and cut the rope suspending Old Yan’s body.

The Treasure Well was deep. It seemed forever before they heard the heavy splash at the bottom. It landed like a blow on their chests, knocking the breath from them. It took a long while to recover.

They lowered the heavy wooden cover, pushed earth over it. The last handful of dirt was placed by Yan Hongsha herself. She patted it down again and again.

Later, when people pass through often, this path will simply become a road.

Secrets are always buried under yellow earth. You never know which step you take lightly is above a story lying quietly underground.

Luo Ren said, “It’s getting late. Let’s go back.”

Back at the stone house, they’d lost count of how many nights they had stayed there.

They lit the fire. Yan Hongsha hugged her knees, sitting on the bed board in a daze.

Mu Dai went over, sat beside her, and asked softly, “Do you have any family left?”

“No.”

As soon as she said it, the grief tore loose. Tears poured down.

Mu Dai patted her back. “It’s okay. I don’t know who my parents are either. My mom abandoned me when I was little.”

Yan Hongsha turned to look at her.

The best way to comfort someone isn’t to say “cheer up” or “it’ll get better.” It’s to say—don’t worry, look, I’ve had it even worse.

Not a matter of good or bad, just human nature. If she’s stuck waist-deep in mud, but sees you drowning, it eases her heart a little.

Mu Dai looked into her eyes. “When we get back, don’t live in Kunming anymore. That big house will just feel empty with only you in it. Once you settle your debts and unfinished business, come to Lijiang. We’re all there. Cao Fatty, Wan San—lots of people. It’s lively.”

As she said it, her heart sank—Cao Yanhua and Wan San were still missing.